This paper evaluates the role of social capital in helping households insure consumption after
natural disaster during the marketization process in rural China. Using the China Household
Income Project 2002 rural survey, our empirical results show that three kinds of social capital,
mutual help, civic participation and trust, did not help households insure their consumption after
natural disaster in rural China. This finding does not depend on the degree of covariance of
natural disaster within villages. We also provide additional evidence that the effect of social
capital on risk-sharing decreases as the marketization level increases.